Our journey so far has involved understanding the fundamental nature of a business network—that it is comprised of participants involved in the meaningful exchange of assets. Let's now focus on the most important concept in business networks—exchange.
Why is exchange the most important idea? Well, without it, participants and assets have no purpose!
This seems like an excessively hyperbolic statement! However, if you think about it for a moment, participants only meaningfully exist in the sense that they exchange goods and services (collectively known as assets) with each other. If a participant does not exchange with another participant, they don't exist in any meaningful way. It's the same with assets—if they aren't exchanged between participants, then they don't exist in any meaningful way either. There's no point in an asset having a life cycle if it doesn't move between different participants, because the asset is private to a participant...